Co-commissions for CHASM, a programme of live artworks and performances searching for intimacy in a time of social isolation.
This is an opportunity for Live Artists across the UK to engage in a programme of remote performances co-commissioned by CLAY and East Street Arts.
We are offering commissions to five artists to develop new work for remote audiences of up to 6 people or the total of a household. This includes artist fees, production budget, test audiences, and a bespoke framework for a remote residency. The programme will be performed over two months in September and October 2020.
We are looking for 5 Live Artists to create live works of performance or actions to be experienced by remote audiences. This is a call out to create live artworks that respond to the provocation of intimacy:
– What does intimacy mean now and how do we experience it?
– What is the relation between intimacy and physical proximity?
– Is intimacy the absence of distance?
-How can we engage audiences in an intimate way?
What we offer:
- Artist fee of £1000
- Test audiences
- £400 production budget per commission
- a network in the other commissioned artists and relationship with two Yorkshire based organisations
- Writing about the programme featuring your work
- Budgets towards accessibility costs for artists and audience
More about CHASM
Live artworks and performances searching for intimacy in a time of social isolation.
Sometimes in the current climate, it can feel like there is a Chasm between us. This programme is an experiment in bridging that gap.
As we adjust to a new way of existing, using new technologies as a method of connecting we wonder what is possible? How can we combat the impersonal nature of a computer screen? When touch isn’t an option how do we feel warmth?
By commissioning five artists and two writers we want to create a programme of live artworks, interactions and happenings responding to the provocation on intimacy in the context of a global pandemic. The artists are invited to play with form and structure when trying to connect with audiences in their own homes. Creating exciting new ways of exploring care, safety and comfort.
CHASM is a responsive programme that supports live artists to make new work and connects them with remote audiences.
We feel a growing distance between people. Intimacy is often directly associated with physical proximity, touch and closeness. Currently, that’s not safe to practice outside of your household. Many people have found themselves isolated from partners, family and close friends.
Unclear guidance from the government, inaccessible information and general insecurities surrounding the pandemic has developed a distrust in communities, along with a huge sense of grief. It’s important but really difficult to feel held. It’s unavoidably lonely.
Within capitalism which is set to pit us against each other and surrounded by fascism, it makes sense to harness compassion, make space to listen and contemplate. We are striving to exist the best way we know-how. Being an artist has never felt more precarious yet art has become more essential for audiences in lockdown through films, books and personal craft activities.
We know artists are best placed to play with those technologies along with other new and exciting ways of connecting with audiences and participants.
Technologies such as Zoom, Houseparty and several other media are currently vital for social interaction and people are investing time in understanding and using them. They are often treated as a replacement for the social interactions we were used to but they are not. Not even close. We want to create a range of works that probe and explore intimacy, and how new or alternative forms of intimacy can be created.
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